The InSight Lander will adjoin down on Mars today , November 26 , concluding its seven - calendar month journeying from Earth . For space fans looking for a way of life to watch the event , NASA will bestreaming it liveon its website between 2 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. ET , Live Sciencereports .
InSight ( which stand for " Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations , Geodesy and Heat Transport " ) launched off an Atlas V arugula from the Vandenberg Air Force Base in California onMay 5 , realize it NASA ’s first interplanetary mission to leave from somewhere other than Florida ’s Space Coast .
After covering 91 million naut mi of the solar organisation , the Insight Lander is set up to make physical contact with the Red Planet’sElysium Planitia . The smooth , flat plain wo n’t be as exciting to expect at as Mars ’s deal and canon , but it will answer as an ideal place setting for InSight ’s mission . Using a hotness probe and seismometers , the lander will map the interior of Mars over the next two years , giving NASA scientist the best picture of the geologic history of the planet they ’ve had up to this gunpoint .
But before InSight can originate pick up data , it must successfully achieve the planet ’s surface . The lander will transgress through the Martian air and chute to the ground — a cognitive operation that should take about six mo — between 2 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. ET today , and you may watch the landing live onNASA telecasting . you may also pelt it onSpace.com .
The provender is n’t expected to be the clear , so NASA will be waiting on a radio signaling from the trade to determine if the landing was successful . If it makes it to Mars inviolate , InSight will commence map the inside of the planet within the next several months .
[ h / tLive Science ]
